A frustrated commuter was told to 'leave early' by a Transport for London worker after he complained about trains running late.
Twitter user @dan_down posted a message to the official TfL London Overground account calling on them to improve their service.
He said he faced losing 25 per cent of his salary due to lateness caused by delayed trains.
He wrote: "Sort it out @LDNOverground if I'm late once more this month I lose 25% of my salary. Are you lot reimbursing me?"
But in a message which appeared to take a sarcastic swipe at the train user, TfL responded: "Leave early you will not be late next time. Hope this helps."
A message from the same account was posted shortly afterwards apologising for the gaffe.
After Dan wrote a second angry tweet saying he "expected trains to be on time", TfL posted: "Apologies for the response you received earlier. I don't think it was meant to come across like that. I'll get this looked into."
Speaking to the Standard, Dan, who did not want his full name revealed, said he had received a formal apology from TfL and was satisfied with their response.
He said delays to his journey on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, which normally takes 45 minutes from his home in London, had prompted him to complain.
He said: "It felt like they didn't have a social media guide and rules that they were sticking to. I thought the remark was pretty funny. But the response was just weirdly out of the usual tone."
In response to online users taking TfL's side in argument, he added: "In the job I work in there are bonus payments, affected by the time you put in. I am already allowing over an hour to get there."
The transport body's original remark has been retweeted hundreds of times and has caused a stir online.
Jessica Patman wrote: "Such a bad response from TfL #teamdan".
Kirstin Sharpin tweeted: "Appalling response to consistent failure on @LDNoverground's part."
In a statement, TfL apologised and said it was investigating.
It said: “We apologise to Dan for sending him this extremely unhelpful message. Dan is absolutely right to complain and we are looking into the circumstances of how it came about.”
